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In the Arctic and South China Sea, U.S. Policymakers to Grapple with Similar Challenges

As my short time here at CNAS is just about over – having focused
primarily on South China Sea research – it seems as though I will be leaving as
the oil and gas rich Arctic region revives a conversation about the High North with
some of the same strategic questions and concerns that are being raised in the
South China Sea.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Navy task force for climate
change completed its latest assessment of the Arctic region. (The assessment is
part of a five-year plan, released in May 2009, to guide Navy policy, actions
and investment regarding the Arctic.) The findings in the report seem to
foreshadow a situation in the Arctic much like the one that is continuing to
develop in the South China Sea – a region where “nations
jockey for control of potentially lucrative resources buried beneath the ocean
floor.”